


Blue's Surprise

by MaddieStilinski



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Also on Tumblr, F/M, Flowers, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Picnics, Ronan Lynch & Blue Sargent Friendship, Sunsets, Surprises, The Gangsey is adorable, cuteness, happy endings, i can't tag this stufffff, it's just super cute and fluffy okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 11:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6656617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieStilinski/pseuds/MaddieStilinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The gang surprise Blue with a woodland picnic and everyone is super happy </p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>Ronan is an actual butternut</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue's Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I haven't posted anything in AGES! I wrote this for my beautiful friend Chloe, who is the sweetest little button ever. Anyway, this is sweet and ridiculous and I hope you enjoy!

The boys arrived at seven in a cloud of gravel dust and exhaust fumes.

‘Blue!’ Maura called up the stairs. ‘Your boys are here.’

The ladies of 300 Fox Way were early risers (well, some of them were) so Blue was already awake, although still in her pyjamas.

She was just brushing her hair into something presentable when the sound of tyres rolling over their drive made it’s way through Blue’s open window, prompting her to drop the brush and make for the stairs. She didn’t look outside, she just knew.

Some things don’t need psychic abilities to be known.

 

‘They’re here early,’ Maura commented when Blue entered the kitchen. She was wrapped in a dressing gown, absently stirring the cup of mystery tea in front of her. She tilted her head just enough to see out the window. ‘I assume you’ll call if you’re planning on staying late.’ She raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Blue shrugged. ‘You’re the psychic. You tell me.’

She missed the scandalised look on her mother’s face in favour of opening the door.

 

The boys looked different in the mornings. Ronan’s expression, usually sharp, was muted, pinched like he had to work hard to keep it so. Adam looked rumpled, but in an endearingly sleepy way, the fraying holes in his jeans more a symbol of comfort than necessity of income. And Gansey, he was softer. He was rounded and hazy and glasses and glazed eyes.

More human, Blue might say say. She didn’t know what to call them during the day.

‘Good morning,’ Blue said.

‘Good morning, Jane,’ Gansey replied cheerily, at once surprised that she’d opened the door before he’d knocked, and pleased that she did.

‘What’s good about it?’ Ronan yawned. Chainsaw squawked in agreement.

Gansey shook his head despairingly. ‘Ronan, we talked about this. Behave.’

From behind him, Ronan muttered, ‘Whatever.’

‘So,’ Blue said, letting the door frame take most of her weight, ‘is there a reason you’re crowding up my driveway, or did you just fancy a visit?’

Gansey had the grace to look a little apologetic before saying, ‘We’re going on an adventure!’ and his voice was so bright and wild and full of poorly contained excitement that Blue couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her.

‘Does the adventure have to start right this second?’ she asked. ‘Or do I get a minute to get dressed?’

Colour rushed to Gansey’s cheeks, eyes dropping to examine her very pyjama-like attire in a way that suggested he hadn’t even _noticed_ she was still wearing them.

Adam, rolling his eyes, filled the gap where Gansey’s reply should have been. ‘Sure, Blue. Go get dressed. We’ll wait down here.’

 

Blue got dressed quickly, picking adventure worthy, yet appropriate clothing: A dress, thigh highs, and boots. The combination of kings, or queens, whichever you preferred.

She arrived back in the kitchen just in time to save Gansey from giving a detailed description of the tea sitting in front of him.

‘You didn’t have to say yes,’ Blue said, pulling an embroidered denim jacket over her dress.

‘I like it!’ was Gansey’s half-hearted retort. He sniffed the tea, winced, then added, ‘It’s lemony.’

Blue shared a withering look with Adam, then said, ‘And you’re ridiculous.’ She plucked her phone out of Maura’s hand, who was holding it out to her in a _take this or you’re not going_ kind of way, then gestured towards the door. ‘Ready when you are.’

Gansey jumped up a little too quickly for someone enjoying their tea so much and clapped his hands together. ‘Great! Let’s go!’

 

Once they’d all piled into Gansey’s Suburban (the Camaro was not built to travel distance, Gansey informed them) and the windows were cracked, Blue allowed herself to relax. Before the boys had arrived, she’d resigned herself to spending the day doing chores, but now she was in the Surburban, surrounded by her boys, head back agains the seat, she allowed herself to feel excited. This was the kind of day where anything could happen, and she would be more than happy to accept it.

This was the sort of day memories were made of.

‘Where’s Noah?’ she asked eventually.

‘He’s meeting us there,’ Adam said, turning round the long way in his seat so that his good ear was close to her.

Blue nodded her understanding. As a ghost, Noah could come and go as he pleased. Sometimes not as he pleased depending on the state of the ley line. Blue wasn’t sure whether to be jealous or saddened by it. ‘Where is _there_?’ she added, shaking herself. ‘We’ve been driving for ages.’

‘Munchkin Land,’ Ronan said flatly. ‘We’re taking you to your people.’

Blue shot him a withering look but the little flutter of familiarity in her stomach took the edge off any comment she could have made back. She _knew_ this. This type of conversation was about as familiar to her as Maura calling ‘ _Night_ ’ up the stairs before bed, or Calla and Orla cracking jokes at dinner. It was lovely in a sort of vague, indescribable way, but Blue didn't really mind. Her whole life had somehow become indescribable. Why should her feelings be any different?

‘If you don’t mind, Blue,’ Gansey said, giving Ronan a knowing look in the rear view mirror, ‘we’d like to keep it a surprise until we get there.’

Blue blinked at him. ‘Why? What’s happening?’

Ronan rolled his eyes. ’That’s the surprise, dumbass.’

‘Okay…’ Blue narrowed her eyes at each of the boys in turn, but none of them gave anything away. ‘I’m a little concerned, but okay.’

Adam turned around again, and this time, there was a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Blue hadn’t seen that smile in a long time. ‘Trust us, Blue,’ he said, eyes a shade brighter. ‘You’ll love it.’

And Blue did trust them. She really did.

 

*

Gansey made Blue put a blindfold on ten minutes before they arrived at the surprise location. Blue had complained about it for a solid three, before calling him a creeper and putting it on anyway. Now, the Suburban was slowing to a stop, and Blue’s heart was hammering in her chest.

She didn’t do well with surprises.

‘Seriously, guys,’ she said the second they were no longer moving. ‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s a _surprise_ ,’ Gansey insisted, kicking his door open. ‘It wouldn’t be a very good surprise if we told you now, would it?’

He had a point, but Blue was neither here to accept his logic, nor listen to it.

‘Okay, but if it’s something scary, you’ll tell me, right?’

The door next to her opened, and the unmistakable smell of _Gansey_ filled the air around her before gentle hands undid her seatbelt and moved her across to the next seat. Blue could hear Ronan and Adam talking outside the car, then the sounds of the trunk opening behind them.

Gansey slid into the space she had just vacated and placed a hand on her knee. ‘You trust me, right?’ he said in a low voice close to her ear.

There was no question of that. Blue would trust any of them to the ends of the earth. ‘Of course, but-‘

‘Then let us do this for you,’ Gansey replied.

Blue swallowed around a reply and nodded, her head full of _hand_ and _knee_ and _Gansey_.

She felt him slide a fraction closer, felt his foot nudge hers. ‘Good,’ Gansey replied. ‘Adam and Ronan are just setting up. It looks like Noah’s arrived too.’

 

They sat in the backseat for fifteen minutes before the door next to Blue was flung open and someone leaned in to scoop Blue out into the open air. Her first instinct was to scream, then shout, then punch the person holding her, which she did all in the space of three seconds. She knew it was Ronan who was holding her because Gansey was still in the car, and Adam usually likes his shirts with the sleeves on, so by elimination it had to be him.

‘Ronan!’ she scream-shouted, looping her arms round his neck. ‘Ronan! Stop!’

She was all at once terrified and delighted, and she was used to the blindfold but in the direct light of day, the sun shone through the fabric and fresh air stroked her skin, and her heart beat faster than it had in a long time.

When Ronan put her down, Blue was almost disappointed.

‘What the hell was that?’ she asked breathlessly, reaching out and punching a random part of Ronan’s anatomy. It wasn’t hard enough to tickle, let alone hurt, but it made her feel better all the same.

Sargent’s weren’t usually one’s for being swept off their feet.

‘How else were you supposed to get out of the car?’ Ronan asked, gripping her shoulders and steering her away from the car.

If Blue’s eyes were visible, she would have rolled them at him. ‘Gee, you’re right!’ she said. ‘Because I don’t have working legs that could easily negate their way out of a vehicle.’

Ronan doesn’t dignify that with a response.

 

Once Blue had been steered (quite forcefully) into position, Ronan let go of her shoulders and moved away, leaving her alone. The ground under her feet was soft, and the sound of leaves, like a lullaby, drifted past.

To her right, Gansey said, ‘Okay, take off the blindfold.’

After so long with it on, it took a moment for Blue’s eyes to adjust to the bright Virginia sunshine washing over them. She blinked twice and raised a hand to shield her face. Then she saw it.

They were in a field, or the edge of a field, next to a boarder of trees, whose leaves were bright and drifting in the breeze. Flowers pushed up through the earth, and if she looked close enough, she could see the wide stretching landscape through a break in the trees. In the middle of all this, was her Raven Boys. Ronan and Noah standing one side, Gansey and Adam the other, all of them surrounding what Blue assumed was her surprise. A picnic blanket was spread out at the base of one of the trees, throw cushions scattered around it, enough for each of them. Food was laid out over the blanket next to paper plates and cups and bottles of coke and pink lemonade. Someone had strung fairy lights over one of the tree’s lower handing branches and they dangled almost to the blanket itself, waiting to be fully illuminated. And then, on a cushion that was bright blue and green and pink, were a bunch of flowers that would never have bloomed that way on their own. They were beautiful flowers, dream flowers, the kind that stopped you in your tracks.

Blue didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, smile, or collapse on the spot.

Instead, said whispered, ‘Why?’

‘Why not?’ said Gansey.

‘To make you happy,’ replied Noah.

‘For putting up with Ronan,’ said Adam.

Ronan shrugged. ‘Parrish has a point.’

Blue looked at them. She was so stunned that she wasn’t sure she could mentally process everything her brain was being presented with. They had done all this for _her_.

‘You know,’ Blue said, ‘I take it back. Aglioby boys aren’t so bad after all.’

 

After that, Blue made a point of hugging each of them in turn, especially Ronan, who refused to admit that this was actually all _his_ idea, even though Gansey had already told her while they were waiting in the car. Then, they sat and ate and laughed, and even Adam was beaming by the time the sun started to sink lower in the sky.

Eventually, once they were all sleepy with sun and happiness, and Noah had turned the fairy lights on so that the whole place glowed with a soft, golden light, Blue said, ‘Who wants to go watch the sunset from the edge of that cliff?’

Gansey, who was absently playing with Blue’s hair where it lay across his lap, nodded. Noah, from his position on Blue’s shins, nodded too, as did Adam and Ronan, who were mindlessly tangled a few feet away.

As a unit they got up and wandered through the trees, tripping and stumbling on tree roots and uneven ground. It didn’t take them long, but when they at last passed out the other side of the trees, it was like stepping into a new world.

Henrietta was spread out under them, almost invisible from the strength of the sun behind it. The hills around them were washed gold, everything was bright. Blue had never really understood what it meant to be breathless, but this was as close as she’d got. Every fire of her being was pulling her _home_ , _home_ , _home_. She didn’t just like it here, she felt like she was made here, created on this very spot with Gansey beside her, Noah and Adam and Ronan close as well.

This was what it meant to be truly happy, Blue thought.

 

Adam was the first to sit down, dangling his legs over the edge of the cliff. The sun reflected in his eyes belonged there, as did the easy way his shoulders sloped back, his head tipped just enough to get the full force of the sun across his face.

Ronan joined him, and then Noah, and even he looked a little more alive.

Blue took Gansey’s hand. She linked their fingers together, and he squeezed ever so slightly. Then they joined the three at the cliff edge.

‘I wish,’ Adam said in a low voice, ‘that we didn’t have to leave.’

Blue didn’t want to analyse the tragedy of that sentence, so she smiled and held Gansey’s hand a little tighter. ‘We don’t, just yet.’

‘It’s been a good day,’ Noah sighed.

Gansey nodded. ‘We should do it again.’

Blue turned to face him. The light was caught against his cheeks, bronzed skin turned gold by the sun. He didn’t look all that real to Blue, somehow less Gansey than the boy that picked her up this morning. But at the same time, this would be the Gansey she remembered for years to come; glowing, all soft smile and shielded eyes. Hers. Her Gansey. Her Raven Boy.

Blue let out a little breath and suddenly it didn’t matter that Gansey was going to die, or that she might be the one that killed him. It didn’t matter that Adam was linked to Cabeswater or that Ronan could steal from dreams, or that Noah was dead. All that mattered was that they were here, right now, with her, watching the sunset.

Blue sighed and closed their eyes. ’Yeah. Yeah, we should.’


End file.
